we are civilised

Because of our ability to move form Darkness to Light...

Theory OF Settlement- Memory

Ok i confess. I love Delhi. A week spent in some dur-daraz ka ilaka is sufficient to make me yearn for all those horrible sounds that the vehicles here produce. But then when asked about the memory of a place that i cherish, i ended up with Rishikesh. Maybe those one week vacations are not a waste of time after all, lols. One thing that makes rishikesh special to me is the connect which we all must have with the place, the holy river of Ganges.
Now let’s leave the Ganges for angrezs and call it what it is, ganga.it is supposedly the holiest of all rivers and the mother of us Indians. But even thinking about is enough to make me reminiscence of its clear cold water standing in which one feels as if standing in heaven. The 6 hour journey is all but forgotten when one sees it meandering through the on-going mountains, a force of nature so powerful that it covers the entire north and north-east of this mighty country of ours. So coming back to the rishta we share, it’s more of a friendly thing for me. It cares, but if we do wrong, it wraths. It caresses and it forswears. So when i finally landed up in Rishikesh, i was per say, in a state of bliss (did i mention we went there in July, when Delhi summers were sucking the life out of people; what relief i tell you).
Now rishikesh is a holy town, meaning its major residents are the holy or not so holy sadhus; though one can always see thousands of foreign people milling about, trying to find a shortcut to nirvana. The belief is very much echoed in the architecture of the place. One can see the viharas of hundreds of temples from a distance. The colours are all in the shades of yellows, reds or oranges. The air itself smells of incense and shops harbouring holy items, namely Rudraksha’s, stones and mantra cds line the street. The city is along a street running parallel to ganga, one side accommodating the majority of holy shrines and ashrams, the other being the more commercial one, cashing in on the gullibility of the tourists. The Lakshman jhula and the newer Ram jhula are of course very prominent in the landscape as well as the movement of the city because of the only pedestrian link they provide across Ganga. The most prominent thing that distinguishes Rishikesh from other temple towns is its uncharacteristic neatness, lols. One can actually find dustbins to throw the waste or a hidden corner which is being used as a substitute for the plastic finesse. Maybe it’s all the foreign people lumbering about, but if it was so simple, one would wish for the government to do it in other holy places as well.
What really fills my mind when i remember my visit is the aarti we attended of the paramartha ashram. It took place on the bank of the where the “parmarth ashram gate” leads a stepped way to the river. The main sadhu, Pujya Swamiji sits in d middle of a large congregation of inmates of the ashram, the Indian and foreign tourist and the localities.
Maybe it is the power of the thousands standing there, chanting with the swamiji, trying to evoke the greater one; or maybe it is the rushing flow of the feet numbing cold water, in the midst of which therein lies a marble shiv murti, looking ethereal; or maybe it is in the calmness of the place, the gate towering over us all, reminding us of our ephemeralness, the scent of incense lingering in the air; or maybe it’s just the plain old me, but that experience is what comes to my mind when our faculty shouts there head off trying to explain us what it is meant to experience a space!!

Theory Of Settlement - book review

DELHI
Lights, Shades, Shadows
- DN Chaudhri

As the title suggests, the book is about the capital of India, Delhi ; its conception , transformation and regeneration. Its about the perception of author ,who is a photojournalist himself, about the city and its history. It starts with author shifting to Delhi with his family in 1942 and takes us along a joyously historical ride of crumbling forts and modern buildings of New Delhi .
Wheather it is the narrow lanes of Old Delhi, partition and the influx of people that insued or the college life at delhi university, Delhi : Light, Shades, Shadows captures the spirit of the capital city.
As its content, the book covers the monuments of delhi as it is largely a journey of author and his lens. Awsome and rare pictures of an era gone by adorn the pages of the book. The Delhi of Lutyens, the Delhi of Mughals and the Delhi of "outsiders", the book shows them all through due reference to architecture. From his flat on Nicholson Road, near Mori Gate, to Chandni Chowk , the secratariat, to the far-off monuments , the authors takes the readers down a memory lane, supported by the photographs of a vivid visual quality which only a gifted photographer can have.
Apart from photographs, the book is supported by an impressive narrative which keeps the reader going. There is nothing which can compare with his stark account of the burning city in the terrible days of 1947; of the dramatic view,or the lack of it, of the Clock Tower in Chandni Chowk. One can almost smell the cauliflowers near Moolchand Hospital and sarson ka saag near Chirag Delhi in the author's description of Delhi's winter.
The book itself is divided into three parts.
Where "Light" deals largely with the days spent in Old Delhi, "Shades" is all about growing up as a teenager and enjoying life loitering in the lanes of Delhi University;
Its many corners and nooks having there own stories. "Shadows" is a rediscovery of sorts, capturing Lutyen's Delhi in all its charm and shortcomings and the important comissions coming the authors way which established him as a photojournalist.
It beautifully describes the building up of a city , the changing of narrow lanes that only had bicycle and "bail-gadis" as its main vehicles to widers roads for motor-cars. Its almost a shock for the modern delhi-ite when author says that Rashtrapati Bhavan was visible from Jama Masjid and Qutub Minar from Raisina Hill ,thus forming a kind of visual view points for the otherwise endless stretch of blue sky.

Here is a book, that will prove to be nostalgic for some and absolutely fascinating for others.The photographs, stories and text combine to tell the story of a Delhi that was.

this blog...?...why..?

lets b clear about what this blog is all about before some1 wastes his/her time and energy reading or browsing further and then coming to the conclusion that the blog is an utter wastage of time and space , sends me hate mails...

hhh..

n that was me taking along breath coz believe me, i did not take a single breath while typing that entire big wala sentence out.

nyways...first things first...

the blog's about the why's of life...

why this and why that...

if there is no "why"...then i try and find the why...in which of course the input is always valued...

n if there is a why...then "we"...not "i" try and find out if there is any particular reason for that to be so.